"I have seen, Jinling jade tree warbler sound dawn, Qinhuai water pavilion flowers bloom early, who knows easy ice dissipation!" Watching him rise up the Zhu Lou, watching him entertain guests, watching him collapse the building. ”
—— (Qing) Kong Shangren,"Peach Blossom Fan"
The Qing Dynasty, as a dynasty established by ethnic minorities and a nation that has been in a state of freedom for a long time, has thoroughly inherited the feudal culture of the Central Plains, strengthened the centralization of power to a point rare in history, and of course refined the hierarchical system to an astonishing degree, so that the harem is full of "crooked melons and cracked dates" under the marriage of close relatives, and also raised a large number of sad "parasites" with the eight flags system.
When the Qing Dynasty had not yet been established and Nurhaci had not yet been established, the Qing Dynasty had the Eight Flags system, which was excavated in 1601 according to the black flag and red flag that appeared before Nurhaci, when carrying out large-scale transformation and reconstruction of a hunting organization called Niulu, at first it was not perfect, only yellow, white, red, and blue pure color four flags, and there was no hierarchy, as if each class just wore a different class uniform.
After Nurhaci annexed the Jurchens in 1615, because there were already 50,000 or 60,000 people in the army, it was set up as eight banners, which did not add new colors, but added on the basis of the original four colors, such as the original red flag was divided into yellow and yellow; the original white flag was divided into white, white, and blue; and the original black flag was divided into red, red, and blue. Therefore, the eight flags at this time are positive yellow, yellow, white, white, blue, red, red, and blue.
However, it should be noted that this is the Eight Banners of the Manchus, and after the Mongols and Han were also conquered, the Manchus added the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Han Eight Banners in 1635 and 1642 respectively, so in fact the Eight Banners refer to the Manchu Eight Banners, the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Han Eight Banners. The Eight Banners often changed depending on the banners led by the Emperor, in short, in the end: yellow flag, yellow flag, white flag, red flag, white flag, red flag, blue flag.
The advantages of the Eight Banners at the beginning were obvious, it provided enough troops for the Qing Dynasty, and the combat effectiveness was also very strong, it could resist Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as the conquest and suppression of the "San Francisco", and on the outside it could repel the colonial army of Tsarist Russia and oppose foreign aggression.
However, with the establishment of the Eight Banners, an event that doomed them to decline also occurred, that is, the Land Enclosure Decree issued twice by the Qing Dynasty, which connived at the large-scale occupation of the people's land by the children of the Banner people, resulting in the displacement of many people and the lifelong hunger and cold, so "the people left their homes, and some parents and husbands hanged the dead; there were those who first invested in the river and then surrendered themselves; there were those who got hundreds of dollars and sold their children; and there were those who scraped the bark and cut the grass roots and ate them."
At the same time, the Qing government also exempted the flag people from taxation and labor, that is to say, as long as you belong to one of the eight flags, of course, you must be a member of the Manchu Eight Flags, then you do not work all your life, you can also enjoy the days of clothes to stretch out your hands and eat to open your mouth, so that many people starve to death at the same time, they are "supporting death" of the Eight Flags disciples, they are increasingly abandoned riding and shooting, doing nothing all day, indulging in various entertainment activities.
However, good days will always come to an end, especially in the late Qing Dynasty, the country is already too poor to be borderless, the people can not receive a few yuan, but also have to deal with the deception, extortion, extortion of various countries, to establish a new type of national defense system, to develop the navy, it is not easy to have a little money and was squandered by Cixi, greedy by officials, so it is the turn of no merit, just waiting for the Eight Banners raised by the imperial court, there is basically nothing left.
So at that time, the Eight Flags children looked at the scenery and said that they were aristocrats, in fact, they did not have much money in their hands, and they lived relatively well, they all took the valuable things in the family as a thing, and they barely managed to maintain their lives, but despite this, they held their own identity, were unwilling to do the "inferior" things, did not produce, drank tea all day, listened to the play, played the piano, raised birds, and made grass with flowers, looked elegant, but in fact, they were set off by empty clothes.
It can also be seen from many old photos of the late Qing Dynasty that the main force of opium smoking at that time was these Eight Flags disciples, because opium was not cheap, the poor could not afford to smoke, people with a little money, he was busy circling around and did not have time to smoke, only these did not do anything, had a family foundation in their hands, and did not know how to temper the people would be sucked by opium, did not know that the building would fall, they were "beating the swollen face to support the fat man", but then the Qing Dynasty really perished, they did not feel that it was related to themselves.